Helpful Healthful Cooking Substitutions

Here are some healthful substitutions that I use in my cooking all the time.

• Substitutes for Oil in Baking - I substitute pureed fruits or vegetables for part or all of the oil in my baking recipes. Examples: Applesauce, pumpkin or other squash, mashed bananas, etc.
• Substitutes for Eggs in Baking - I substitute 1 heaping Tbsp. of freshly ground soy flour (from soybeans) and 1 Tbsp. water for each egg in my baking recipes. I also read somewhere that you can use ground flax seed instead of the soy, but I haven't tried it. I also read that you can combine 1 tsp. unflavored gelatin with 3 Tbsp. cold water and 2 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. boiling water. This mixture will substitute for 1 egg in a recipe. Another source says to substitute 1-1/2 to 2 Tbsp. pureed pumpkin or other squash for each egg in any recipe. I haven't tried that one either.
• Substitute for Buttermilk or Sour Cream in Baking - I mix 1 C. of Milk (can use powdered milk mixed with water) and 1 Tbsp. vinegar and let that sit 5 min.
• Meat Extenders or Substitutes - I use Cooked Quinoa, Cooked Brown Rice, re-hydrated plain TVP (textured vegetable protein) or Cooked Beans.
• Substitute for White Flour in Baking Recipes without Yeast - I substitute the same amount of freshly ground whole-grain flour for the white flour in baking recipes without yeast. Examples: White wheat, Brown Rice, Oat Groats (or Rolled oats ground in blender), Barley, Spelt, Kamut, etc.
• Substitute for White Flour in Baking Recipes with Yeast - I substitute freshly ground whole-grain flour for the white flour in baking recipes with yeast. I also add about 1 Tbsp. gluten flour for each cup of whole-grain flour used in the recipe. (I don't increase the flour called for in the recipe, I just add the gluten flour as part of the flour called for).
• Substitute for Milk in Baking Recipes - I use powdered Milk for almost all of my baking. For Instant Powdered Milk, mix 1/3 C. of powdered milk with 1 C. of water for 1 C. of milk. For Regular powdered milk, mix 1/4 C. of powdered milk with 1 C. of water for 1 C. of milk.
  
• Substitute for Cream or Half-And-Half - I use a double portion of powdered milk for each single portion of water as a substitute for cream or half-and-half.
• Substitute for White Flour as a Thickener for Soups, Sauces, Gravies, etc - I use freshly ground bean or whole-grain flour to thicken soups, sauces or gravies.

Do you have any more healthy substitutions you use in your cooking? Have you had successes or failures with any of the ones I've mentioned?

Read More

Donut Muffins

Here's another great recipe adapted from hillbilly housewife. I substituted a mixture of spelt, brown rice and barley flour for the white flour. I put less butter and sugar on top than the recipe called for. They turned out delicious! They aren't healthy enough for me to be eating every day, but a great recipe for holidays and special occasions. You can make them gluten free by simply using a gluten free flour.

Donut Muffins

1/3 C. shortening
1/2 C. sugar
1 egg
1-1/2 C. wonder flour
1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
3/4 C. milk

For The Topping:

1/4 C. powdered sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 C. melted butter

Mix shortening and sugar in a mixing bowl. Beat in the egg until smooth. Add the wonder flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg into the bowl. Pour in the milk. Mix the batter with a whisk until it is smooth. Drop the mixture into 12 greased muffin cups until half to two-thirds full. Bake the muffins at 350 F for 25 minutes, or until the muffins are brown on top. Remove them from the oven and allow them to cool slightly.

In a small bowl, mix the powdered sugar and cinnamon and set aside.

When muffins are done cooking, remove from the pan. When they are cool enough to handle, dip the tops of the muffins into the melted butter. Then dip them into the powdered sugar/cinnamon mixture. Best served warm. Enjoy for breakfast or a snack.

Read More

Delicious Chocolate Milkshake

I found a great recipe for a delicious chocolate milkshake. I wouldn't call it healthy, but it's healthier than most and it's really good! They claim that it tastes similar to Wendy's Frosties and I have to agree with that. It's the closest thing I've ever tasted that is made from scratch. The nice thing is it has simple ingredients! If you're looking for a treat, it's not as bad as some treats out there and it uses powdered milk! With that in mind, you can find the recipe at:

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/magicmilkshakes.htm

I used all the same ingredients shown in the recipe, but I halved it. It made more than enough for my husband and I. Enjoy!

Read More

Whole Grain Corn Bread

In my opinion, the best tasting corn bread in all the world is made with freshly ground (finely ground) popcorn. Mmmmh! It is so tasty! And so nutritious. I never liked cornbread much until I started grinding the corn meal myself (on a fine setting). Something about the gritty texture of most cornmeal that you buy in the store isn't appealing to me.

Here's my recipe for you to try. If you have a favorite recipe you use, just try grinding popcorn in place of the corn meal. It is so good!

Corn Bread

Printable Recipe

*Makes 8 servings

INGREDIENTS:

1 Cup milk

¼ Cup butter, melted

1 large egg

1-1/4 Cup cornmeal (made with fine freshly ground popcorn)

1 Cup white flour *see note

½ Cup sugar (can substitute 1/2 Cup honey)

1 Tbsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

DIRECTIONS:

Heat oven to 400 F. Grease bottom and side of round pan, 9 x 1-1/2 inches, or square pan 8 x 8 x 2 inches, with shortening. Beat milk, margarine and egg in large bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients all at once just until flour is moistened (batter will be lumpy). Pour batter into pan. Bake 20 to 25 min or until golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

*Note: alternatively you can try it with a whole-grain flour. I've made it with wonder flour before and it it's really tasty, just a bit more crumbly than with white flour. I like it with half whole grain flour and half white flour.

*Recipe Source: adapted from Betty Crocker Cookbook

Read More

Delicious Orange Rolls

I made these tonight. They turned out delicious! This is another recipe that isn't extremely healthy. It is healthier when you use whole grain flour, but it still has a lot of butter in it. So don't overuse it - it's great for holidays and special occasions!

Delicious Orange Rolls
2 C. water, microwaved for 2 min or until quite warm
1 C. sugar
6 eggs beaten
6 Tbsp. melted butter
2 tsp. salt
2 c. whole-grain flour (I used a combination of spelt, barley and brown rice)
2 T. gluten flour
2 T. instant yeast

Combine the above ingredients in Bosch mixer in order with the yeast on top of the flour. Mix and add white flour (or experiment with more whole-grain if you want - just add 1 T. gluten flour for every cup of whole grain flour you use).

Let rise one hour or until double. Roll out dough and spread with grated rind of 2 large oranges, 1 cup sugar and 12 Tbsp. softened butter (try with less butter if you want).

Cut dough in thirds and roll up like a cinnamon roll, sealing off the ends. Cut with floss. Let rise until double (about 1 hour) and bake 8 min at 425 F or until done. Makes about 50 rolls.

Read More

Walnut Stain Update and More...

Well, it's been about two weeks and we're happy to announce that walnut stains are not permanent tattoos (phew!) No, the identical attire was not done on purpose!!
And speaking of walnuts...

Yesterday I learned a trick that is really cool. Did you know that you can crack a walnut with your bare hands? This is really slick...you can use it to impress people - it sure impressed me the first time I saw it! Here's a demonstration:

It seems to work only with two walnuts held together. Squeeze them against each other. Don't apply too much pressure! You might hurt yourself. This is really easier than it seems! You don't have to be really strong - even I can do it!

Read More

Wonderful, but Dangerous Cake Recipes for 2

A neighbor gave me this recipe. It is amazing! This is what her recipe cautioned:

"And why is this the most dangerous cake recipe in the world? Because now we're all only five minutes from...(delicious) cake any time of the day or night!!!"

That is a problem! I personally have only had this cake recipe in my hands for 1 week, but I've made it 4 times! So here's my caution: try this recipe at your own risk!

Fortunately, I have modified it a bit for you so it's not AS BAD for you as it was, but just because it has some healthy ingredients, doesn't mean you should make it for yourself every day. I will include a few variations that I've made from the original chocolate cake -the original was the same as #1, it just used white flour. My favorite is still the chocolate with whole-grain flour, but the others are good too. This is a gluten-free recipe if you use gluten-free flour.

Get creative! Try a variation! This is an easy recipe to have fun with because it uses so little ingredients. If you mess up, you're not out by much. If you do make a good one, will you post the recipe as a comment for all of us to enjoy?

1. Dangerous Chocolate Cake-In-A-Mug
1 Cocoa Mug
4 Tbsp. whole-grain flour (try spelt, barley, oat, brown rice, wheat, or a combination)
4 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. cocoa
1 Egg
3 Tbsp. milk
3 Tbsp. oil
1/4 tsp. vanilla
dash of salt
3 Tbsp. chocolate chips (optional)

Add dry ingredients into a mug, mix well with a fork. Add egg, mix thoroughly. Pour in milk, oil, vanilla, and salt and mix well. Add chips (optional). Put mug in microwave, and cook for three minutes on full power (1000 Watts).

Cake will rise over top of mug, do not be alarmed! Allow to cool a little; tip onto a plate if desired. Eat!! (This will serve two if you are feeling slightly virtuous).

2. Dangerous Spice Cake-In-A-Mug
1 Cocoa Mug
4 Tbsp. whole-grain flour (try spelt, barley, oat, brown rice, wheat, or combination of a few)
4 Tbsp. sugar
1 Egg
3 Tbsp. milk
3 Tbsp. oil
1/4 tsp. vanilla
dash of salt
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1/16 tsp. allspice

Add dry ingredients into a mug, mix well with a fork. Add egg, mix thoroughly. Pour in milk, oil, vanilla, salt and spices and mix well. Add chips (optional). Put mug in microwave, and cook for three minutes on full power (1000 Watts).

3. Dangerous Pumpkin Cake-In-A-Mug
1 Cocoa Mug
4 Tbsp. Brown Rice flour
4 Tbsp. sugar
1 Egg
3 Tbsp. milk
3 Tbsp. pumpkin Puree
1/4 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (or 1/8 tsp. each of cinnamon and nutmeg)

Add dry ingredients into a mug, mix well with a fork. Add egg, mix thoroughly. Pour in milk, oil, vanilla, salt and spices and mix well. Add chips (optional). Put mug in microwave, and cook for three minutes on full power (1000 Watts). This is a gluten-free, low-sodium, low-fat recipe. It is good, but tastes more like a pumpkin muffin than a cake.

Read More

Healthy Homemade Baby Food

One of the best starts you can give to your baby is feeding him or her healthy baby food. The best way to insure that your baby is getting the nutrition he or she needs is to make your own. Commercial baby food is often low in nutrition, highly processed and packed with preservatives.

Here's a great article on making your own baby food.

http://chefbrad.com/education/articles.php?qid=1

One of the best advice I was given about making my own baby food was to use ice cube trays to freeze it in. You can puree up a big batch of fresh squash or fruit and freeze it into an ice cube tray. Then the next day, pop out the cubes and store them in labeled freezer bags. When serving, just pop out the cube, unthaw it and serve. This makes baby food as easy as commercial baby food. That is important for busy mothers!

Baby cereal is very easy to make using freshly ground whole grains. Here's the recipe I use for my babies:

2 C. Rolled Oats
2 C. Brown Rice
1 C. Wheat Germ
4 unsweetened dry bananas*

Blend Oats and Wheat Germ in blender for a few minutes. Add bananas and blend until uniform. Grind Rice in grain mill (or a blender if it's high quality - mine doesn't make it fine enough). Combine Rice with other mixture. Store in refrigerator in an airtight container.

When serving, combine 3 T. cereal mixture with 3/4 C. water. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly until thick. Let cool before serving.

*Instead of bananas you can sweeten the cereal with unsweetened applesauce or other fruit puree. Just add it after heating the grains. This is a good way to cool the cereal down faster as well.

I usually start them on this about 8-9 mos. For young babies (6-9 mos.) begin with just a single ground grain (Brown rice, oats or millet are good choices) and mother's milk as sweetener and to mix.

Here are some of my favorite baby-food products:

Read More

What we've Learned about Walnuts (The Hard Way)

A wonderful neighbor brought over a big garbage can full of walnuts from their tree. My husband and I were very excited. We love walnuts. We began husking them by hand and it took quite a while. During the process, I went inside a few times and washed my hands. It's a very messy job! Brandon was diligent and stayed out there the whole time, husking until we were done. We were so pleased to have two big buckets full of walnuts. We plan to cure them in a dry place for a couple of weeks and then store them in our basement.

After we were done, we went inside to wash up. I was surprised that the stuff on my hands didn't wash off all the way. I didn't think much of it, because it wasn't too bad. When I looked at Brandon's hands, however, I was shocked. His hands were black! We've tried many things to get it off - dish soap, fingernail polish remover, butter. He even stuck a finger in the gas can to see if that would help. Needless to say, it didn't do much. Here's a picture of his hands this morning (2 days later - after many, many attempts at cleaning).

We've read some information about it, and indeed there is a dye in walnut husks that people use to stain wood and other things. We haven't found anything that will take it off yet. Apparently, it has to wear off and will take about a month! We'll let you know I guess. Oh well!

Here's a few sites about harvesting and storing walnuts (we wish we would have found them before we tried it!):

• http://www.extension.umn.edu/yardandgarden/ygbriefs/h404blkwal.html
• http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/hortnews/1994/9-16-1994/bnut.html

Walnuts are very healthy. They contain healthy omega-3 fatty acids that they body needs. Also they have an antioxidant that supports the immune system and has anticancer properties. They have plenty of other vitamins and nutrients that are healthy. Eating walnuts helps in lowering cholesterol levels, controlling high blood sugars, and improving cardiovascular functions. Here's a few articles about the nutritional value of walnuts:

• http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=99
• http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts/nut-and-seed-products/3138/2

The other mistake we made with the walnuts was putting the walnut husks in the garden. Apparently, the husks contain chemicals that are bad for the garden. So guess what I spent my afternoon doing? I hope I wasn't too late getting them out of the garden because it rained yesterday. I did learn my lesson and wore gloves this time. Some people have to learn the hard way!

Read More

Pumpkin Chicken Soup

My husband made the BEST soup yesterday for dinner. We had a lot of pumpkin left over from our jack-o-lantern from Halloween. He added a couple of cups of pumpkin to our chicken soup and it really improved the flavor. Chicken soup is already such a comfort food, but with the pumpkin it's even more of a comfort food. Here's the recipe for you to enjoy!

Pumpkin Chicken Soup
6 C. water
3 tsp. instant chicken bouillon
1 tsp. onion salt
Parsley (as much as desired)
Dash of pepper
2-3 chicken leg quarters
1-2 C. chopped onions
2 C. diced carrots
2 C. diced celery
2 C. cooked, pureed pumpkin

Heat the above ingredients in a large crock pot for 5-6 hours or until chicken is cooked. Then remove chicken carefully and discard bones and skin. Return chicken to pot and add 4 cans cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup (he used 2 of each). Cook Egg Noodles separately and then combine with the soup. We like the wide egg noodles of the Country Pasta brand or you can make your own! Serve with fresh bread, bread sticks or rolls.

You can add rice instead of the egg noodles or eat it without. I'd like to try this in the pressure cooker sometime because I think it would do great! It's also Gluten-free other than the egg noodles and cream of chicken soup. For lower fat you can substitute 1 or 2 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts for the Leg Quarters. Mix in some cornstarch if it needs thickening.

Read More